New climate and energy policies are proliferating in the wake of commitments made at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. As a result, the foundations of future oil demand will be shaken—with potentially dramatic impacts on oil prices and price volatility in the decades ahead.

Carnegie Europe in partnership with the European Climate Foundation convened over 100 experts from the European institutions, EU member states, think tanks, NGOs, and the private sector to explore future oil market scenarios. Phil Summerton, director of Cambridge Econometrics, presented a new study commissioned by the European Climate Foundation that examines the impacts of evolving policies, technologies, and security landscapes on oil prices, as well as broader economic effects.

This event featureed two working sessions on the geopolitics of oil security and on policy choices for the energy union, with keynote remarks by Pawel Olejarnik, energy analyst for the World Energy Outlook at the International Energy Agency, and Mechthild Wörsdörfer, director for Energy Policy at the Directorate General for Energy of the European Commission.